The Helene Fuld Health Trust has granted $1.5 million to The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing to establish and support a new Leadership Fellows Program in Clinical Nursing.

The program is designed to augment the school's nursing curricula by providing students with an opportunity to work with a mentor from the inpatient hospital setting, think critically about clinical quality problems and take the lead within interdisciplinary teams to study and solve a quality or safety clinical problem.

"We are very excited about this new program, which will enable the School of Nursing, in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Hospital Department of Nursing, to groom undergraduate nursing students to become leaders in clinical settings," says Kathleen M. White, associate professor and director of faculty practice at the School of Nursing and lead planner of the new fellows program. "Nurse leaders have the potential to transform the profession and make far-reaching improvements in patient care, and it is important that innovative clinical leadership practices are developed," she says.

The Helene Fuld Health Trust is the nation's largest private foundation devoted exclusively to nursing students and nursing education. The grant, divided into $500,000 a year for three years, will support 120 undergraduate Leadership Fellows and prepare the program for long-term success, sustainability and broad dissemination.

Martha N. Hill, dean of the School of Nursing, says the fellows program also could have a positive impact on the current national nursing shortage. "When you encourage students to lead efforts to improve patient care and enhance contributions of the nursing profession, they will more readily envision a career in clinical nursing that is both professionally and personally rewarding," Hill says. "Ultimately, this commitment to the profession will bolster the ranks of expert clinical nurses."